Tribeca Festival Toasts Documentary Filmmakers

Nikolai Hartmann, Tonislav Hristov, Lili Ermezei, Peter Flinckenberg and Antti Luusuaniemi of ‘Love and Engineering’ at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Getty Images for the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival

Documentary filmmakers with films in the Tribeca Film Festival mingled at the Tribeca Press Lounge on 9th Avenue in Chelsea on Friday.

One9 and Erik Parker, first-time filmmakers whose documentary “Time is Illmatic” had premiered the night before, described the experience of walking the red carpet and being introduced by festival founders Robert de Niro and Jane Rosenthal on the festival’s opening night.

“We didn’t even know what that really meant until last night,” said One9, who directed the film, which is about the rapper Nas and his album “Illmatic.” “I’d never been to a film festival before.”

The multimedia artist described seeing Nas watch the film with his family, including his brother Jungle and his father, the musician Olu Dara. “The whole family was so moved by the film. We were watching them and we saw the emotion in their face,” One9 said. “It was powerful to experience that.”

Parker, who wrote and produced the film, said it was great to see the diverse mix of people at the premiere and concert.

“When ‘Illmatic’ came out, we never would have imagined that the world would get it,” he said. “But I think this film helped the world get it, helped people get it who didn’t come from there, based on what we saw.”

Casimir Nozkowski, who directed the short documentary “70 Hester Street,” about his childhood home on the Lower East Side, was excited to see Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton in the audience for the premiere of his film, which is part of the festival’s City Limits program of shorts. (Chelsea Clinton executive-produced “Of Many,” another City Limits film, about a friendship between an imam and an orthodox rabbi who are both chaplains at New York University.)

“It was very exciting to see that my film was being seen by a former president and a future president,” Mr. Nozkowski said. “I feel like that’s the best kind of audience you can ask for when you’re screening a short documentary.”

Adam Weber and Jimmy Goldblum, who directed “Tomorrow We Disappear,” about India’s Kathputli Colony of artists, magicians and performers, also attended Friday’s event.

Mr. Weber said they first learned about the colony reading Salman Rushdie’s book “Midnight’s Children” and were thrilled when Mr. Rushdie accepted their invitation to the film’s premiere, which took place Saturday.

“We have a ticket for you of course,” he said, describing his reaction to Mr. Rushdie’s response. “You can lay down on the seats and we will reserve all of them.”

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